Spotlight><

Collecting music had long been a hobby of Peter Bollen’s, but it turned into a true labour of love when he starting hunting down and restoring music clips from TopPop. Over the years the television broadcasters turned out to have wiped countless clips, a disproportionate number of them featuring Dutch artists. “Cleaning up clips and restoring them to their full glory gives me a real kick.”

Last August, two Maastricht University (UM) students had the unique opportunity to travel through China following the path described in China Illustrata, a 17th-century collection of travel journals compiled by the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, which is part of the UM’s Jesuit collection.

A new book on organisation change—written by three SBE alumni—presents the process of deep change as an adventure. The book, Engage! is presented as a travel guide for change agents. The emphasis is on making connections and learning to learn.

Videos

LOFT 2016 is the twelfth in a series of bi-annual conferences on the applications of logical methods to foundational issues in the theory of individual and interactive decision-making. This Conference on Logic and the Foundations of Game and Decision Theory took place at Maastricht University at the end of July.

Adolf Hitler was an unlikely leader – fuelled by hate, incapable of forming normal human relationships, unwilling to debate political issues – and yet he commanded enormous support. So how was it possible that Hitler became such an attractive figure to millions of people? That is the important question at the core of Laurence Rees’ new book.

How can young, entrepreneurial-minded university graduates position themselves to start their own businesses? Thijs de Wert, a project manager with Fresh Forces, also called Frisse Blikken, believes his company knows what Gen Y entrepreneurs need.

Earlier this year, the Dutch Basic Income Association (Vereniging Basisinkomen) celebrated its 25th year with a conference in Maastricht. For three days in January, approximately 150 people–politicians, councilors, scholars and activists–gathered in the city to discuss the various controversies and misunderstandings relating to definitions in The Netherlands about all kinds of initiatives concerning the universal basic income (UBI).

Philipp Blom speaks with us about, among other topics, how religion forms the mentality of a society, life for everyday people in the inter-war years and the sometimes destructive effects of rapid technological advancement.

Today, technology companies promise us a seemingly genuine path towards social mobility. So they are more than happy to provide the public with free services in exchange for our data. But what are the moral, political, and social consequences of accepting this free bargain? And why are our existing governments so eager to go along with Silicon Valley’s plans? Evgeny Morozov addressed these issues this week in his Studium Generale lecture, which can you watch here.

In this video interview, Petra Dassen-Housen, the mayor of Beesel, a small town in the Dutch province of Limburg, shares her experience with crisis management following a hostage-taking situation that ended with the death of the hostage-taker and his three-year-old daughter. She recently gave a lecture on the subject to third-year bachelor’s students participating in the course Crisis Management in Organizations (EBC2100) at the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (SBE).

The higher up the career ladder you look, the fewer women you see in universities in the Netherlands. Nine percent of Maastricht University professors are women – but this can and must be improved, according to Dr. Lisa Brüggen of SBE.
Brüggen, who created the Elinor Ostrom Fund in 2014 to provide a long-term source of funding for women at Maastricht University, was the project leader of the “Women in Academia” Service Science project initiated by the faculty board of SBE.

On 20 April, Paul De Grauwe, Professor of European Political Economy at the London School of Economics visited the University of Maastricht to deliver a lecture entitled, “Is the Eurocrisis over?” Watch the complete lecture here.

Prof. Muriel Niederle, Stanford University, gave a keynote speech on the topic ‘Gender, competitiveness and career choices’ at SBE’s 7th Maastricht Behavioral and Experimental Economics Symposium (M-BEES) on 2 June 2014.

In August 2013, the first cultivated meat hamburger was prepared and sampled in London, England. Maastricht University Professor Mark Post created the burger–which he says is healthier for both consumers and the environment. Early this month, Post told Dutch radio 1Limburg that he expects cultivated meat to be available in supermarkets in as few as four years.

Last August, two Maastricht University (UM) students had the unique opportunity to travel through China following the path described in China Illustrata, a 17th-century collection of travel journals compiled by the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, which is part of the UM’s Jesuit collection.